Laboratory evaluation of entomogenous fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch) Sorokin against earthworm, Eisenia fetida (Sav.).

Keywords: Metarhizium anisopliae, isolates, bioassay, earthworm, hazardous

An experiment was conducted in completely randomized design (CRD) to evaluate indigenous insect pathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorokin against earthworm, Eisenia fetida (Sav.) in the Entomology Laboratory at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Rampur in 2004/05. Four isolates- M₁, M₂₆, M₄₈ and M₅₀ of  M. anisopliae were tested on 30 nearly mature earthworms @ 10⁷ spores/ml including control each replicated four times. The treatment gave positive results with no significant effect on body weight reduction and mortality of earthworms. Therefore, this laboratory result indicated that the fungus is not hazardous to earthworms with dipping method of bioassay.